John Wayne Article – Feb. 15, 1976

The Duke as he looked in his final movie, "The Shootist"

The two Western cable channels – GRIT and Outlaw – have been playing a lot of great John Wayne movies lately (True Grit, Rio Bravo, The Searchers, Three Godfathers, McClintock, Chisum) so it's a good time for me to post this article from the Feb. 15, 1976 edition of the Journal. It's an interview with the Duke at the time he was filming his last movie, The Shootist.

As noted in past blog posts, I can't emphasize enough how much my brothers and I idolized John Wayne when we were growing up. Mom and Dad took us to see all of his new movies (including The War Wagon, Chisum, The Undefeated, The Cowboys, True Grit, etc.) beginning in the mid-1960s, usually at Amherst Theatre. A few we saw as part of the Summer Movie program (such as Hellfighters). Consequently, we first became familiar with him when he was already older (and fatter). Gradually we were able to catch his old movies on TV and see him at his best.

One of my recent favorites is El Dorado, with Robert Mitchum and James Caan (who is hilarious). It's often criticized as being just a rework of Rio Bravo, but I don't agree with that at all. The Duke is a sheriff in one and a gruff gunfighter in the other. But both movies have a dance hall girl as love interest for the John Wayne character, a drunken law officer, a grizzled deputy type, and a younger man helping in the fight against the bad guys.

Anyway, here is the Feb. 1976 interview. It's interesting that he was planning another sequel to Rooster Cogburn, which was already a sequel to True Grit. But sadly, he passed away before he was able to make another film.

It was great seeing James Stewart as the doctor who gives
John Wayne's character the bad news about his health.
Two film greats.